Showing posts with label Walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walking. Show all posts

Tuesday 20 April 2021

Writing While Moving Again

 

Ok yesterday was first time in a long time that I've used my voice to actually write a blog post and I realise that I say the words “and you know” and lots of things like that with my normal conversation.

 

It seems that when I actually stop it then does a new paragraph so that's something else that I've actually learnt while doing this. So if I keep speaking continuously I just get one long stream of text which I then obviously take home and put it into my word processor to to punctuate it

 

So this looks like it may be potentially I could actually do my blog posts. I can be a bit more disciplined in it because now I know that when I finished speaking if I pressed return that's a paragraph and obviously it's not just one massive text like I had to do yesterday.

 

It's looking like a definite option so will be publishing this today after I've actually tidied it and I've got everything in there

 

One of my problems yesterday is that I was talking and not looking at my phone and this actually meant that couple of times I would think it was recording and it wasn’t. I would come to the end of something and then I had to think whereabouts I was, what I needed to say, how could I continue so but again it's like anything you've just gotta learn how to actually use it to your benefit

 

In the middle of this I am walking along Fenham Hall Drive and the pictures and the sunrise look quite I don't know vaguely impressive but vaguely threatening as well. Hopefully I will put in a link to this into my blog post but I am quite happy with what's actually coming out of this and think that tonight's editing will be a lot easier than yesterday's. Also going to publish it on Vocal as well which they'll hopefully put on there and hopefully somebody will read it.

 

It’s quite impressive capturing things you want you want to record, and yes it's easy to actually type but it's a lot easier to speak. I much prefer talking to people on the phone or you know on a video call then actually writing a text or an email.

 

Right I am now walking down towards St James and St Basil's and they describe their garden is an oasis of calm. I like walking down there in the morning so it's just a great start to the day it means I've got a bit of walking in and I'm ready ready to  hit the day

 

I've decided to drop my million steps every 3 months target it's just because I've been doing it for so long. I will still do at least 5000 steps a day which is basically more than 2 miles a day but so there is a slight target there, but it means I will have more time to do other things I enjoy.

 

So that's I'm going to wrap this up now. I always put a piece of music in to accompany my post but it's more about doing the writing so we will see what this looks like when I finally publish it tonight.

 

Last week I was listening to a “Best Of” Talk Talk so we sill go with “It’s My Life” from that album to accompany this. My apologies if a lot of this doesn’t make sense of sounds like someone who can’t even string a sentence together. It’s still very experimental and I am am still learning have to use this to it’s best advantage.

 

Generally when you type you are fully in control , but when you are dictating to software it is making a best guess at what you are saying so you have to edit it. So that’s another step. We shall see if I can do anything tomorrow.

 

Who Knows.

 

Sunday 14 March 2021

The Wind

Although temperatures are rising when I am out walking there is a wind that almost takes your face off it is so cold. This makes walking out not very pleasant, although I still try and get out and to hit an avaerage of 11K steps a day.

This week I tried Noom but found it too regimented but was willing to give it a try as it seems to working for certain friends, but after continually filling it information about what I'm eating (the blurb does not indicate this) and the final straw was to get you walking and then work up to a decent amount. It gave me three starting points , 2K , 5K and 10K . I chose 10K because I walk an average of 11K steps a day, but Noom said I had to start at 2K then increase my steps by 300 a day. There was no way I was doing that as it would ruin my normal routine.

So while Noom is fine for a lot of people , it is not for me , like gyms (which I find boring. I am going to go out for a walk after this and hopefully the weather will be a little milder but knowing my luck maybe it wont be.

So music wise we will go with "The Wind" from "Teaser and the Firecat" by Cat Stevens.

Wednesday 10 March 2021

Making Time

How often do you think "Where's The Time Gone?". As we get older time seems to go faster but that's because we see it as relative to out age. When I was 6 I got six weeks summer holidays from school. That was a week for every year of my life, it seemed like forever to me and when I hit grammar school it was eight weeks. The equivalent holiday time now based on my age would be over a year.

I don't regard time spent watching a program I want to watch as wasted, but often we just sit and channel hop finding nothing and suddenly a few hours have disappeared. It's similar with phones , computers and web based devices, time just disappears.

I regard listening to music , reading , watching TV series I enjoy as time spent well, and it's always good to look at what you want to do and then you do not feel your time is wasted, because whatever you do , it takes time. There is no getting away from that.

This morning I walked seven miles and that took me three hours , but it is my way of exercising and I listened to a few albums even though it was raining. Today is part of me using up my annual leave but I am not wasting it and will be seeing my granddaughter Alexis this afternoon.

I have done sixteen thousand steps so far, but to hit the twenty six mile marathon total I would have to do that three more times and I don't think I could commit to that on a normal day.

So always find something to do , even if it's jus to rest and relax and take things easy. That should prepare you for when you need to do something that involves planning and effort.

Friday 26 February 2021

A Marathon?

You hear the phrase "it's a marathon not a sprint" applied to many situations, and due to one thing and another this week , over Monday to Friday I have recorded over 100K steps which is about forty four miles, which for me is impressive.

Yesterday I wanted to better 26K steps , then I decided to hit 30K then 33K then 15 miles and finished on 35K. The fact I had done 15 miles got me thinking I could do 26 miles in a day, not as a continuous run , but just to hit twenty six miles in a day. Here's the details of the original and it is just over twenty six miles, but at my general speed of 2.5 miles an hour that would be eleven hours walking, so it is improbable that I will do it , but with a week off next week the thought is very much in my head.

Being on an effective staycation gives me a lot of potential routes that would serve my purpose but the amount of time it will take will probably mean that I don't do it.

Also Snickers chocolate bars used to be called Marathon and I think the new name is rubbish , Marathon was far better.

So to soundtrack this Edwin Starr's "25 Miles" is close enough for me.


Thursday 25 February 2021

Success

 
Following on from my previous post. I had planned to do 25K steps at first , then that went up to 30K then I decided on 15 miles . 2,250 of my steps make up a mile so I need to aim for 33,750 steps which I thought I might not make, but in the end I hit 35,195 steps which is 15.6 miles.

That has smashed my previous days record (26K) and took me six hours to complete so the average speed of 2.5 mph is not too impressive , but the fact that I did it impressed me.

My legs are sore but I think they will be fine after a good sleep , and ready for more walking with Kirsty and Alexis tomorrow.

On the right is my "proof" from the Google Fit app which is now fairly robust for tracking my walking.




So the perfect song for this is "Success" by Iggy Pop. I always put a song into my post these days because it gives the reader the opportunity to have something playing while they read the post. The song comes from the David Bowie produced "Lust For Life" album , which is one of those that should be in everyone's collection.

Fifteen Miles

This year I intended to post maybe once every three days , January went as expected but February , well this is my nineteenth post , so it's more like two every three days this month.

I try to do 340K steps every month and most months 11.5K steps a day is enough for that, but non leap year February only has 28 days so the average has to be 12.2K and I haven't done that this month meaning that with five days left I needed to do 75K steps to hit my target. Yesterday I did 20K steps and today I am hoping to complete 30K steps. My record is about 26K but I would like to hit 33K which will be about fifteen miles. Again not a great distance and I have friends who do that on a daily basis.

I did this when Diabetes UK started it to raise money. I didn't raise any money but thought it was a good idea to sort of keep fit, as I hate gyms. The Diabetes UK task  was a million steps in three months but I turned it into a rolling three months which I am still doing now,

This morning I decided to forego my lie in and get a start of maybe six or seven thousand steps. I took a tour through Gosforth and across Newcastle United Golf Course and when I got back I had done 15.5K steps which is seven miles , so almost half way there.

My plan was to walk between 12 and 5 this afternoon which was originally going to be around 25K steps , but with this morning's walk 40K is a distinct possibility but highly unlikely, because basically I am lazy and I could be walking instead of writing this. But I'm writing not walking.

Tomorrow I am meeting my daughter and granddaughter and last week that ended in a 22K step walk so there is a slight chance that I could hit my February total tomorrow , but we shall see.

Thanks to my Google Pixel 2XL I can listen to a lot of music and today it's been the "More" soundtrack by Pink Floyd and "Another Day On Earth" by Brian Eno and while I love the whole album , and have shared "This" so many times , "How Many Worlds" is an absolute beauty so I will share a wonderful time lapse video with you for you to enjoy.

Sunday 21 February 2021

Zigzagging


I didn't intend to post anything today after posting three times yesterday , but felt I needed to record what I noticed today. It is probably not anything most people will be bothered about but my lateral thinking mind immediately tied it up with Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart).

I've been out for a walk today mainly to get some jam from the Moorside Allotment shop for me and my daughters, but this meant a continuation of the walk across Nunsmoor .

No the EU forced Britain to keep driving on the Left Hand side of the road , despite most of the rest of the world driving on the right , and it's similar when walking on paths or escalators , you see signs that say "Keep Left" , and I always try to keep left, but people on paths seem to be all over the place which mean that when I'm walking it's not a straight walk but a zigzag , going from right to left to avoid people walking on the right , and the worst one was a guy who was on the right with his dog on an extendable lead on the left hand side effectively blocking the actual path meaning I had to walk on the grass to get past.

I think will some people it is just pure ignorance , they are the only ones that matter.

The walk was pleasant nevertheless and is an excuse to share "Zigzag Wanderer" by Captain Beefheart, just to show how off kilter my mind gets.

Friday 5 February 2021

At The Double

Yesterday was a non work day for me , so I went out walking and managed to meet and chat to two of my neighbours , Emma and Manjit , twice. Now in this lockdown it's unusual to see people to speak to in person, we can , phone and videocall but two even meet two people is unusual , and to meet them twice in one day is definitely out of the ordinary.

There's been a cold North Wind today and the weather is dreich , cold and grey still , absolutely uninspiring, and though I walked different paths today it was more like a chore than an achievement.

My reading is still between the excellent in a car crash kind of way "Left Out" and the excellent in an excellent type of way "Imajica". The thing is although reading "Imajica" on the Kindle is very slow , it just means I will spend so much longer in that magical universe,

TV is continuing with "The Daily Show" , "Shrill" , "Cobra Kai" and a new one "Resident Alien" and today the Queen Platinum Collection has provided all my #MusicWhileYouWork  and there is a lot of good music in there. Although that is only three hours I did have a lot of meetings.

The reason I was listening to Queen is because my mate Jim had posted on Facebook about "Innuendo" containing his favourite Queen song ever, which is a high recommendation given that Jim must be close the the world's number one Queen fan to the point that his scrap books were used on official Queen releases. However he didn't mention the song , and I  don't have the album, but knew the ludicrously amazing title track graces Volume II of the collection , but I'm going with another favourite of mine "Las Palabras de Amor" featuring Mr Bulsara in a very smart suit.

Wednesday 3 February 2021

Hopefully

The weather doesn't really seem to be improving, still cold , wet , dreich.  This is my thirteenth post this year , though the second today. so overall I am still scaling down the number of posts though lockdown is affecting me getting out any distance to find things to write about, although artists are still managing to produce output while staying in.

Today has had me listening to a couple of David Bowie CD boxes , the first "The Next Day" and "Station To Station" is playing now. Both are examples of how a really great presentation can be made from the artist to the fans, both boxes are on the list below.

Hopefully the weather will improve and tomorrow on another day off  I will get to see my granddaughter Alexis , but me and her mother agreed it's not great to meet in weather like this.

The skies are getting greyer and darker and I still need to gout for a third walk today to try and get my steps up.  February is an annoying month , twenty eight days meaning that it reality I need to average 12,200 steps a day and so far this month I have not done anything like that , and in this weather I don't really feel like doing it, but I know that I will, the only thing that normally puts a spoke in my works is illness.

So I know there really isn't much in this post but will share the title track of the album that I am listening to at the moment , it is a definite favourite of mine.

Thursday 29 October 2020

The Camera Always Lies

 The other week I just did not feel like walking at all, although I managed a few steps , last week I did get back to sort of normal although th eclocks going back has had an effect. Last night I went out in daylight at around 4:30pm , when I returned around 5:30pm I was in total darkness, the dark came nown very quickly and although the weather is cold it's not freezing.

When I go I out I do enjoy trying to capture pictures, especially the skies , simethimes you don't get what you want, but sometimes you get things far more amazing than what you have actually seen. This morning the sky was a gorgeous pink with mackerel cloud effects , but the pictures I took were grey and nondescript. This week I have taken some amazing looking sunrise pictures , and they were nowhere near as good as the photographs that I took.

The thing is I remember photography being film based , you took the picture , then when you finished the film you paid to have it developed and a week or two later you got the results which may or may not be in focus. Now thanks to enormous jumps in technology we have cameras as part of our communication devices and ofthen these allow us almost instant access to take pictures.

The other thing is that if you don't take pictures immediately then the moment is gone, that was never an option with film based cameras.

Another thing is that often see vistas which I want to take a picture of , but the camera cannot capture the faraway image sthat I see like a plane or a bird. The other thing is that the human eye only captures part of what we see and the brain fills in the gaps.

With a phone camera we don't have an optical zoom, so we need a a very high pixel capture to enable the digital zoom , which works to a point, but still is nowhere near as good as the human eye or cameras with optical zoom (which have enabled me to capture images that I couldn't actually see when I took the photograph),

I once had a Sony phone and the camera on that could take some amazingly psychedelic images, which I sort of loved , but was not good fir capturing a normal picture. Apparently my Google Pixel 2XL is one of the best phone cameras, and the number of photographs I take are a testament to that, but I know things are only going to get better in this area.

The word "Camera" appears in a wonderful line in the John Cooper Clarke song / poem "Post War Glamour Girl" and is:

"Glamourous Cameras Clickety Click"

I always thought "Glamourous Cameras" would be a great name for a band as well. So that is the song we will go with on this dreary Thursday.


Sunday 13 September 2020

Sydney Opera House (Again) - #FruitfulSeptember #5



 Walking down Fenham Hall Drive I noticed the cranes at Wallsend seemed very close. This is one of many examples I have seen of the Sydney Opera House Effect , but its certainly the most impressive one that I have seen . I first tried taking photos with my phone but they didn't come out very well, then tried yesterday with my Canon camera but it was a bit grey and then today the light was a bit better and the pictures came out better with the 25x optical zoom. I can go up to 50x but that is digital enhancement and you really need and tripod to keep the camera still and given that many of the photos are done dodging traffic , it;s not really an option. You can see the photos on my Instagram channel here.

Due to one thing and another and the task above I have walked nearly seventeen miles this weekend without really trying. I suppose that's good for me and show that I can actually walk. It's amazing the number of times that because I am diabetic and have high blood pressure that people ask me if I'm able to work, and do gentle exercise. Sometimes I do get tired but you cannot let health things get the better of you , you have a life to live.

I feel slightly guilty that have binged on series four of Bosch and am now on the second episode of series five. It is excellent and highly watchable and I do know that when I hit the end of series six in a few weeks I have plenty of other things to watch. It becomes so easy to watch the start of the next episode , then you are thirty minutes through and then you think I may as well finish this one and then you are onto the next one.

I finish and enjoyed "Venus on the Half Shell" by Philip Jose Farmer writing as Kurt Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout and it was enjoyable but am now revisiting "Spear of Destiny" by Daniel Easterman and even though it's not really started I am eighty pages in and completely rehooked. How he has not had any of his books made into films I haven't a clue, although you can see the Easterman / Aycliffe styles criss crossing. 

So for #FruitfulSeptember we will continue with "Apples and Oranges" a single from Pink Floyd when they were still led by Syd Barrett.


Wednesday 2 September 2020

#FruitfulSeptember #1


I often think that I will just not write anymore on this blog , but then it's a diary and diaries never stop. It also is a method of recording things that I may want to remember. So I will keep writing , I am very contrary in my mind at times.

This morning I took a four mile walk to the Freeman Hospital for a check up and all seems to be in order . They now have an impressive fruit and vegetable stall out the front of outpatients but it is farly expensive, but it is in a prime location.

TV wise I have one episode of "Veep" to go although there is an Amazon Prime Veep vs Trump stream which I shall be watching tonight, which has reminded me , I've still not caught the "Parks and Recreation" COVID reunion show.

This morning was a little grey and now we have rain, so I'm not sure if I will get an evening walk. I know we're past the longest day but the nights and dark mornings are drawing in and after yesterday's heat , today is quite chilly.

I'm sure I wanted to say something else in this post but it's gone , and that will be an excuse for another post tomorrow.

I was, then I wasn't, going to do a sequence based on fruit for September but then thought , yeah I will , and #FruitfulSeptember is a good tag to go with, and to start off with "Overnight Sensation" by The Raspberries who have never featured on this blog. Although this was an excellent record , Eric Carmen went solo and produced som excruciating AOR so it's unlikely you will be seeing any of his solo stuff on here, but you never know, there may be hidden gems in his back catalogue.

Monday 17 August 2020

Don't Walk, Boogie - #AnimalAugust #11


I had gone to bed , my body is tired but my mind is not , so I 've got up and decided just to post something on the blog , in the hope that my mind will decide that sleep is a good idea as well as my body. When I got up I could hear running water, always a worry , but a tap had not been switched off in the shower room, so that was OK.

For the last two days I haven't felt like walking anywhere, but still done 6K steps a day and for the month I am still ahead of the mark, but I have just not felt like walking. Maybe I am just too used to walking round my area and want somewhere different. On Saturday I did go down Denton Burn  and got some good photographs and am toying with walking down to the Tyne , although it's then a long uphill walk back, but it would do me good , and if the weater is OK I may get some good photographs.

I also may track down some more interesting old buildings to visit, we are virtually sited on Hadrian's Wall and I have still never been to Segedunum which may be a trek worth doing one weekend. Vindolanda is a bit further west and definitely not walking distance but here's a video I did soundtracked buy Alex Harvey's take on WH Auden's "Roman Wall Blues"

The "Don't Walk, Boogie" title is nicked from a k-Tel disco pop album from te seventies or eighties. The albums were groove crammed so sound quality was not too impressive.

For the #AnimalAugust  sequence , given the Romanesque bits of this post I thought I would go for an Eagle song and that could have been something by The Eagles, "Fly Like An Eagle" by the Steve Miller Band , but thought I would go the "Day of the Eagle" by Robin Trower , ex Procol Harum , but a very impressive metal guitarist fronting his own band after he left. I do have a 4CD set of his stuff and think it may be due another run out.

Right that's probably enough so I will try and hit the sack once more tonight.

Saturday 25 July 2020

A Cautionary Covid-19 Tale (That Has Nothing To Do With Covid-19)


Today I have been remarkably tired , although I've been out a bit and done more than my normal 11K step target. This morning I fixed a picture that had been disconnected from it's frame (a little sellotape fixed that) , and posted a CD off to the USA, so it's not as though I have been doing a lot or a little, but on the way back from town had an idea for a short story, which may not be to everyone's taste but every story needs an idea, and this is just a straight draft , no editing , just coming out of my mind.

So a 300 word black humoured short story (probably influenced by Roald Dahl)  for you

All my posts these days have an accompanying video, I think "Free" by VAST is sort of suitable.


A Cautionary Covid-19 Tale


The takeaway had a sign in the window (which was fully covered in advertisements and the takeaway menu) , "only one customer in the shop at any one time, wait til the ENTER sign lights". The ENTER sign was lit so he opened the door went in and checked the menu on the wall.

After perusing the menu he placed his order and pulled out his card.

"Cash Only , we don't take cards, there is a cash machine next door"

He checked his wallet and had enough to pay for his meal, so handed over the notes and took the change.

"Thanks it'll be about twenty minutes, are you OK waiting"

"Yeah , no problem"

There were a few magazines on a small table in the seating area, mostly supermarket periodicals advertising food and meals to make, but he decided to see what was happening on his phone, the internet and news sites held a little more interest than the magazines.

He heard a noise but didn't take any notice, the BBC site had an article on Liverpool's lifting of the Premiership , and that now had all his attention.

The person who had served him had disappeared in the back, presumably getting his order together.

There were some more noises, like something scurrying on the floor and behind the seating .

"Maybe it's the heating"

His phone had his attention.

Then there was a bite on his ankle,  it felt like a bite , he grabbed his ankle (he had come into the shop wearing a T-shirt , tracksuit bottoms and slippers , nothing else...

There was blood on his hands .

"What the .... "

He didn't finish the sentence .........

The server came back behind the counter, with the owner and looked at what was left of their customer.

"Are they all back in the box?"

"Yes"

"Well that looks look like enough mince to keep us going for the next fortnight......."


The End ..... Or 



Sunday 19 July 2020

Walk A Mile In My Shoes


This morning I mowed my lawn, it's a small lawn. I checked how many steps I'd done and it was over a mile. That surprised me quite a lot that I could walk so far in such a small area. I know people have smaller gardens but sometimes a mile is not very far and other times it seems a long, long way. I am not a very active person but don't mind walking a few steps each day (actually about 11K which is around five miles). It is amazing how some people are aghast at that while I have friends who often cycle ten or fifteen miles a day , 50 to 100 miles a day at weekends plus serious gym time. So no I am anything but a fitness fanatic.

Today I have decided to retire the  www.spoongig,co.uk URL but the blog well remain possibly in a subdomain of this one. I don't get to that many gigs these days and was just using one email so it's not really worth keeping. I am going with the subdomain which I hope will start working soon on www.spoongig.sevendaysin.co.uk 

The weather is rather good for a Sunday so that means I should be able to his my steps target.

I'm two thirds of the way through "Everville" and I would have remembered reading this excellent books , so it's only taken me ten years but I'm on it now , and soon will be deciding what to read next. Though a lot of reminds me of certain parts of "Preacher".

I've completed "Vikings" and "Lucifer" so far , but enjoying "The Umbrella Academy" though there seem to be a lot of ideas lifted for other iconic films and series such as "Preacher" and "Pulp Fiction" and enjoying the mind bending complexity of "Altered Carbon".

Music wise I've gone for "Walk A Mile In My Shoes" by Big Daddy Wilson , although there are numerous more well known renditions available.

Thursday 18 June 2020

Hazy


Since the weekend the sky has been a uniform grey with mist almost to ground level. This has burned off for the last two afternoons revealing sunny blue skies, but my phone's weather app showed an icon that looks like waves , so I was thinking Tsunami? Flood? ... apparently it actually means hazy so that means I can rest a little more safely.

It's now after work and the sky is still grey. I will go out for a walk and visit a local Roman Temple, the weather is at least conducive to walking which is good. I've managed to keep my steps up this month.

Today I opened a pack of toilet rolls that I bought when lockdown started and everyone was panic buying, throughout this lockdown I have never gone short of anything , I noticed shops that have sold out but always found alternatives close by, while a lot of people I know were telling me how impossible it was to get things. The irony being they all own cars so in theory can go anywhere , whereas I rely on public transport and shanks pony.

Although my CD is slowly shrinking via my Discogs store I will be buying the new Nadine Shah album "Kitchen Sink" , here music is like nothing else , all the instruments are so percussive and she is one of the few artists who I have a complete collection of. I am also going to download the 40th anniversary version of "Two Sevens Clash" by Culture, I have the original in digital format so will do the same for the anniversary edition.

As this is named Hazy I will share "Hazy Jane" by Nick Drake.

Sunday 14 June 2020

Afoot


I have been using some comfy trainers for my walking and this week I pulled out an old pair that feel as though I'm walking directly on the road, but actually make walking much more productive and easier. The comfy ones I suppose are almost like walking on grass whereas the "uncomfy" ones are actually more suited to the job of walking.

Since I've decided to keep to the 11K steps a day target , whatever the month , it's been a lot easier to meet the targets and I am not halfway through this month but already 30K steps up (mainly due to walking into town to post a couple of Discogs orders to Spain and Sweden) , so maybe this month I will hit my target again.

This week I binge watched (for me ) "Space Force" on Netflix , the episodes are only thirty minutes and there were only ten episodes  and I was very impressed by it. I am also up to series five on "Vikings" which just seems to spread further and further round the world with every episode.

The weather is is still dreich and as such is not very inspirational , I've had the guitar out and looking at using keyboard to provide bass rhythms but still no nearer producing anything. Part of this is that I want by backing to to be instant and also get distracted by TV , listening to music and reading , although they should be providing inspiration rather than distraction. I am not good with self practicing.

I wasn't sure what  music to share but last week heard this Nina Simone take on Bob Dylans' "Just Like Tom Thumbs' Blues" , the thing is Dylan's voice often put's people off but I think that people will listen to Simone's version. I obviously love the original but this is a song that can transcend the performer, bu t this is and awesome performance.

Listen all the way through , I challenge you to be unimpressed.